


I'm Dreaming of a Snow Leopard

by StBridget



Category: MacGyver (TV 2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Farm/Ranch, Animals, Crack, Crack Treated Seriously, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Post-Canon, Retirement, literal fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-05
Updated: 2019-08-05
Packaged: 2020-07-31 12:22:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,975
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20115040
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StBridget/pseuds/StBridget
Summary: After retirement, Mac and Jack start an animal sanctuary.  Jack makes a very special acquisition.





	I'm Dreaming of a Snow Leopard

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TorchwoodCardiff](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TorchwoodCardiff/gifts).

> MacGyver is property of CBS and its creators.
> 
> This (not so) little piece of fluff started with a habit of TorchwoodCardiff and I of playing the "what if" game, namely, "what animals would the MacGyver characters have?" We're also in a group devoted to cuteness I run, and one of the pictures I posted was a snow leopard. She said "That's Mac's". I said he wouldn't have room, and she said he'd find a way. That led us to imagining Jack and Mac running an animal sanctuary with a wolf for Jack and a snow leopard for Mac. That led to this.
> 
> For purposes of this story, the Dalton ranch is near Houston. I'm not sure where it is in canon or if we actually know.
> 
> This is a juiced up version of the world that appears in Stray Dog Man in Sing-a-long III with Riley substituted for Leanna.
> 
> I'm still trying to figure out how to work a snow leopard into a mission fic. . .

It started with a litter of bobcat kittens.

Well, no, it actually started with an elderly cattle dog someone dumped on the road by the ranch. Jack, kindhearted soul that he was, wasn’t going to leave it to get hit by a car (unlikely given how isolated they were, but possible), or worse, killed by a coyote (cattle dogs may be trained to guard against coyotes, but an elderly one wasn’t going to be able to defend itself well). Naturally, Jack took it in. He was prepared to defend his decision to the death, but Mac just smiled indulgently and sketched plans for a dog house, Riley was delighted, and Bozer declared the dog wasn’t living on feed store kibble and looked up the best homemade senior diets for dogs.

One dog led to another dog and then to a litter of abandoned puppies. Word quickly got around that the old Dalton ranch was the place if you had a dog you didn’t want. Soon, the yard was littered with dog houses, and one of the paddocks had been cleared for the dogs. There was even space in the barn for really nasty days.

Then, one day while Mac and Jack were at a neighboring ranch, they came across a litter of kittens in the barn. Jack cooed over them, and the rancher mentioned he was probably going to have to drown them because he didn’t have room for any more cats. Jack couldn’t have that, so the kittens came home with them. Much to Jack’s amazement, Mac didn’t protest, Riley immediately claimed one of the kittens for her own, and Bozer added homemade cat food to his repertoire. That naturally led to the Dalton ranch being the place for unwanted cats as well as dogs.

Mac and Jack rolled with it. The ranch had long since stopped functioning as a cattle ranch; there were still four horses for the four of them to ride, but otherwise, there was plenty of room for the animals they brought in. They got their license to become an official sanctuary. They even did a few adoptions, but Jack was too attached to most of the animals to let them go, and many were too elderly to place.

Then came the bobcat kittens. Riley found them on a ride across the property. There were four of them huddled in a dip near a fallen tree. Riley looked for the mother and found her about a hundred yards away, lifeless, likely the victim of a coyote. Not knowing what else to do, Riley rode back to the ranch and brought the truck back. Carefully, she bundled the kittens into a box lined with a soft blanket and loaded them into the back of the truck.

Surprisingly, Jack put his foot down. “Riles, those are wild animals. We can’t keep them.”

“But, Jack,” Riley wailed, “they’re all alone. They’ll die if we don’t do something!” Her chin quivered and tears filled her eyes.

Jack sighed. He never could resist Riley when she was upset, not when she did it as a little girl, and not now. “There’s a wildlife rescue in the area. I’ll call them.”

The wildlife rescue said they were glad to help out, but they didn’t have room right now, and could Jack and company possibly foster them? The rescue helped them get the temporary permit, and they converted the bunkhouse into a nursery. Things went fine until the kittens were grown. They couldn’t be released into the wild, and the rescue still had no room; the nearest place that could take the kittens was almost 300 miles away, a private wild cat sanctuary called Cat Haven. The foster permit expired when the kittens reached six months, and nobody knew what to do.

Riley did her research and found a way to get a permit that would allow them to operate as a wildlife sanctuary as well as the cats and dogs. Jack tried to hold firm, but he was powerless against Riley’s puppy dog eyes, especially when Bozer, who’d grown attached to the kittens as well, joined in. Jack had to admit he was rather fond of the critters himself, leaving Mac the sole holdout. Jack dangled the temptation of making permanent enclosures in front of Mac, and he soon relented.

The Dalton ranch, now renamed the Phoenix Sanctuary, became the overflow for rescued wildlife who couldn’t be released back into the wild. The bobcat kittens were soon joined by a coyote injured too badly to be released and even a baby mountain lion. The four of them built spacious enclosures on some of the property about a half mile from the house and got licensed for tours and educational programs at schools.

At first, they hired a keeper to help them care for and train the animals, but Mac and Jack wanted to do it themselves, so they enrolled at the program for ranch and exotic animal management at the Houston Community College System. Jack liked it so much he transferred to Texas A&M for his bachelors in zoology.

As a present when Jack got his bachelors, Mac presented him with a wolf-like native animal. Mac had gotten it with the promise that they would participate in research with the federal captive breeding program for red wolves to determine whether the Texas animals were in fact red wolves. Jack was delighted and howled along with it when it arrived.

Jack wanted to do something for Mac in return, but he didn’t know what. Mac enjoyed building enclosures for the animals and seemed to like the program they completed (though it was a little heavy on biology for him), but he never really seemed to bond with any of the wild animals.

Until Mac and Jack were visiting Cat Haven. They were there to deliver their mountain lion for breeding purposes. While there, they took a tour.

Mac seemed enamored of the wild cats. He wasn’t so impressed with the lions and the tigers, but he stared in fascination at the serval and had a healthy appreciation of the power it took for the melanistic jaguar to puncture its sturdy metal water bucket (Jack was pretty sure Mac was calculating the force it took in his head). What Mac was most enamored with was the snow leopard. Mac spent a good half hour at the cage holding a lively conversation with the creature. His conversation was punctuated with “Aren’t you a beautiful animal?” and “Look at that tail!” Mac was delighted when Cat Haven’s founder came over and called the snow leopard. It came bounding to the fence and put its paws up as if hugging the founder through the cage. Mac didn’t say it, but Jack could tell he wanted that to be him.

That set Jack on a mission: he was going to get Mac his own snow leopard. They had space now that the mountain lion had relocated, and Jack figured they had leverage with Cat Haven. It took him almost a year working with Cat Haven to locate a snow leopard cub the host zoo was willing to part with, but Jack did it. Jack was giddy with excitement when he set off on the two-day trip to pick it up from Cat Haven who had offered to act as the intermediary stop. Jack could barely keep from spilling the secret to Mac. It was a good thing Jack was such a proficient liar—the excuse that he was checking on their mountain lion rolled easily off his tongue.

The closer Jack got to the ranch with his cargo the more excited he got. He couldn’t wait to see Mac’s face when he realized the snow leopard cub was all for him. Bozer had convinced Mac to drive to town with him to pick up supplies (a ranch full of animals went through a lot of feed, so multiple trips to town a week were necessary as was the need for at least two people to haul the bags).

Jack got the cub safely installed in her new home. He was very glad that instead of hiding she immediately set to exploring. Everything was set up perfectly; Jack just had to wait for Mac to get home.

As soon as Mac got home, Jack met him and spun his cover story.

“Sam didn’t work out,” Jack said. “I had to bring him back. I’m concerned, he’s not acting like himself. Will you come take a look?”

“Really? Cat Haven didn’t say anything about it,” Mac said.

“Actually, they did. That’s what the trip was about. I didn’t tell you because I wanted to see for myself before making any decision.”

“Alright. I’ll come out with you as soon as I help Bozer unload.”

Riley stepped up. “I’ve got it. You go with Jack.”

Mac and Jack took the second truck out to the enclosure. Mac frowned when he saw the seemingly empty enclosure. “Where is he?”

“He must be hiding in his den,” Jack said. “I told you I was worried about him.”

“Yeah, that’s definitely not like him.” Much to Jack’s delight, Mac walked around the enclosure to the den area, not spotting the snow leopard cub now curled up asleep on a platform in the corner of the enclosure.

Mac peered at the empty den. “He’s not here.”

“You must have missed him,” Jack said. “He’s got to be here somewhere.”

Concerned look on his face, Mac moved back around to the front of the enclosure. He scanned the area, first the ground, then the higher areas. Jack waited with barely contained excitement until Mac’s eyes lit on the fluffy bundle on the platform. “That’s not Sam.”

“No, it’s not.”

Mac looked closer. “Is that. . .? No, it can’t be. Jack, is that a snow leopard?”

Jack bounced on the balls of his feet. “Yep. Her name’s Anna, and she’s three months old. Cat Haven helped me find a zoo that was willing to place her with us. She’s all yours.”

“Mine? Really?” Mac was incredulous.

“All yours,” Jack confirmed.

Mac’s face broke out in a huge grin. He threw his arms around Jack. “Thank you, Jack! You’re the greatest!”

Jack wrapped his arms around Mac and squeezed back. “What are you waiting for? Go say hi.”

Mac bounded around to the back and made his way into the enclosure, slowing himself down with an effort so as not to startle Anna. He stopped beneath the platform. “Hi, there, beautiful. Want to come down and say hi?”

Anna peered over the platform at Mac and let out a little mew. “That’s right,” Mac encouraged. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

Anna peered at him intently for a minute before making her way down to the ground. Mac held out his hand, and Anna approached it. She sniffed hesitantly at it, then rubbed her head against it. Mac scratched behind her ears, a smile lighting up his face.

“She likes you,” Jack said.

“And I love her,” Mac said. “Thank you, Jack. This is the nicest thing anyone’s ever done for me.”

Jack blushed and tried to play it off. “You got me a wolf.”

Mac never stopped petting Anna who was now winding around his legs. “Yeah, but that was a lot easier than tracking down a snow leopard.” Jack started to say something, but Mac cut him off. “Don’t say it was nothing because I know it wasn’t.”

“It was worth it for you,” Jack said. He’d taken down international terrorists, disarmed nuclear bombs, and literally saved the world, but nothing had ever felt as good as this moment seeing the most important person in the world to him now sitting on the ground letting a snow leopard club climb all over him. This was what life was all about.

**Author's Note:**

> Cat Haven is a real place, but it's in central California, not Texas. They really do have a mountain lion named Sam, a serval, and a jaguar (though not one of their melanistic ones) who bit through their water pail. Their snow leopard is very devoted to their founder and really does come up to hug them. They also currently have 2 adorable baby caracals, which I have yet to see. :( Check out their FB page: https://www.facebook.com/PSCatHaven/
> 
> The process to foster wild animals and become a sanctuary is not researched; however, the zookeeper programs and the Texas "wolves" are.


End file.
